One of the great things about a spiraliser is that it allows you to eat much healthier foods and to make changes to your diet quickly and simply. The invention of spiraliser certainly revolutionised the health food arena. No longer with people with gluten or egg intolerances forced to buy expensive substitute pastas, they were able to make their own healthier versions at home.
This recipe for simple zoodles with a buttery sauce is a crowd pleaser. When you spiralise a veggie like a zucchini you basically need one medium-large zucchini per person. Spiralising makes it look like a lot more than that! So you can easily scale this recipe to feed as many people as you would like.
Make sure the ends of the zucchini are very straight- cut off the top and tail, halve , and then pop into the spiraliser and turn, turn turn! Depending on your speed, the pressure you use and the shape of the zucchini you may end up with very long noodles that you need to cut before cooking.
You don’t need a non-stick pan to cook these in,
a well seasoned cast iron pan such as the sauté pan I’ve used will do the trick perfectly. They also don’t need any long cooking, because you want them to retain some texture and just be bendy rather than being a plate full of sloppy mush. The great thing about using a cast iron pan like this one is you don’t have to crank the temperature, as it works to retain the heat really well.
It’s a one pot meal, everything is done in the sauté pan from start to finish, so there’s no major clean up! And it’s perfect as a light lunch or even as a side dish, in which case the portion for one person as laid out in the recipe would suit two as a side.
If you want, you can add some bacon with the onion and fry until soft and then add baby spinach with the zoodles and finally some cream to make it a full meal, but this is more of a lunchtime version, designed to satisfy but not overfill you. We find that zoodles keep us satisfied well into the afternoon without spoiling dinner!
You don’t have to cook your zoodles, but the texture can be a little difficult for kids when uncooked unless they are used to uncooked zucchini, so I’ve chosen to cook them for this recipe. You can also blanch them quickly in boiling water if you are combining with a pesto or a jar sauce.
Zoodles in a buttery sauce
Ingredients
1 zucchini per person, spiralised into noodles
½ an onion per person diced (I used this onion chopper)
1 tbsp butter per person
1 tbsp chopped parlsey per person
1 pinch salt per person
1 pinch pepper per person
parmesan or pecorino cheese to serve
Method:
Spiralise the zucchini to make zoodles
In a saucepan, over medium heat melt the butter and lightly sauté the onion. You want it to be soft but not brown.
Add the zoodles and allow to cook for a few minutes without stirring.
Add the pasley, salt and pepper to the pan and start to toss the zoodles through the buttery mixture.
Don’t leave them alone as they will go very quickly from yummy noodles to baby food.
Keep stirring until they reach the desired level of cooking. I like mine to be bendy but not mushy.
Remove the pan from the heat and serve immediately with parmesan or pecorino cheese.
